The gates to Highlands Ranch's Backcountry Wilderness Area swing open for one weekend a year, and that weekend is here. The Highlands Ranch Community Association's Haunted Forest returns for two nights, Friday and Saturday, sending visitors down a three-quarter-mile trail through trees and a creek bed that sit untouched by the public the rest of the year.
A South Metro Tradition Dating to 2011
The full haunt runs Friday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. and Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m., according to DowlingGroupDenver.com, which reports the walk is recommended for ages 10 and up and uses flashing strobe lights. The event has run at the site every year since 2011, per the same outlet, making it a long-running fixture of south-metro Halloween plans. As 98.5 KYGO notes, the trail winds through a tree-lined creek bed that HRCA otherwise keeps closed to the public.
That creek-bed stretch is exactly what makes the Haunted Forest feel different from other local haunts. The report notes that this area is not open to the public, so the Haunted Forest weekend is the only time anyone gets to walk it. Along the way, HRCA has described the experience as having nightmares lurking behind every tree and bush, according to 98.5 KYGO, with eerie lights, props and scare actors done up in clown, doll and witch makeup waiting along the path. Music and lighting guide visitors from the parking lot to the entrance before the scares even begin.
Local Teens Make Up the Bulk of the Scare Squad
Most of the people jumping out from behind those trees are local high schoolers logging volunteer hours, not professional performers. HRCA places anywhere from 60 to 100 of them in the forest each night, the same report states. The Backcountry Wilderness Area itself covers 8,200 acres that HRCA manages, giving the student scare actors plenty of dark, undeveloped terrain to work with.
General admission runs $15, with a $25 fast pass for those who don't want to wait in line, per the dossier's dowlinggroupdenver.com reporting. 98.5 KYGO adds that the event has sold out in past years, and that Eventbrite listings show high demand for tickets this season. The Eventbrite listing for 2026 shows a starting price of $17.42 against that $15 face price, though what accounts for the gap isn't established. Proceeds from the Haunted Forest go toward the Backcountry Wilderness Area Fund, supporting the open space the trail passes through the rest of the year.
Fall Fest and Fright Lite Give Younger Kids an Easier Entry Point
Saturday isn't just about the full scare experience. HRCA is running three separate experiences that day, from 1 to 10 p.m., according to the dowlinggroupdenver.com account: a daytime Fall Fest, an early-evening Fright Lite walk, and the full haunt after dark. Fall Fest runs 1 to 4 p.m. with tickets priced at $10 for kids and $5 for adults, while Fright Lite follows from 5 to 7 p.m. at $10 a ticket, featuring lights, music, decorations and themed scenes but no live scare actors — a gentler on-ramp for families not ready for the full trail.
Visitors headed to any of the Saturday or Friday events should park at Rocky Heights Middle School, 11033 Monarch Blvd., and walk in from there, per the dossier's sourcing. One Eventbrite listing identifies the venue as the field south of Rocky Heights Middle School in Lone Tree, while other reporting ties the event to Highlands Ranch and the same Monarch Boulevard address — a discrepancy that hasn't been resolved in available materials. A 2024 HRCA retrospective noted the haunt raises more than $20,000 a year for habitat preservation and environmental education, underscoring that the scares are, at bottom, a fundraiser for the land itself.
